Prize Gaming: My No-BS Guide for Small Businesses

Listen, let me tell you a story. It was 2010. I was fresh-faced and working with this tiny startup in Portland, and they were just... hemorrhaging their seed money on Facebook ads. We’re talking thousands of dollars for clicks that went nowhere. It was painful to watch, and frankly, it taught me the most important lesson of my career: most marketing advice is complete garbage for the small business owner. You don't need a "revolutionary paradigm shift"-you need something that gets you customers this month, without having to sell a kidney to pay for it.

That's why I'm so big on prize gaming.

Yeah, I know, it sounds like another buzzword cooked up by some agency trying to sound smart. But after 15 years in the trenches with over 200 businesses across the US and Canada, it's one of the only things I've seen work. Consistently.

So What is This "Prize Gaming" Thing, Really?

Here's the thing, it's not complicated. You're just taking the same psychological triggers that make people play Candy Crush for 3 hours and applying them to your marketing. A little competition, a chance to win something cool, a quick dopamine hit... it's basic human nature. We're wired to love games.

So when I talk about prize gaming, I am not talking about building some complex app that takes six months and a team of developers. I'm talking about running a simple, 10-minute setup campaign that people actually want to interact with. Instead of a boring "Sign up for our newsletter!" popup, you give them a "Spin the Wheel to Win 15% Off!"

Which one do you think gets more emails? It's not even a fair fight.

People are so tired of being sold to. But they're not tired of being entertained. That's the whole secret.

My Go-To Playbook (and Why I Switched to Faisco)

Look, I’ve used them all. Gleam. io, Woobox, ShortStack... you name it, I've probably built a campaign with it. They're all... fine. But they always felt clunky, or too expensive, or just overkill for, like, a local bakery or a barbershop.

Around 2022, I started testing out Faisco with a few of my clients, and honestly, it just clicked. It solves the biggest problem I see: businesses want this stuff, but they dont have the time or budget for a big production.

Let me give you some real-world examples. Not hypotheticals.

• Last summer, I was working with this Austin barbershop. They were struggling to build a local community. We deployed Faisco's "Summer Catch" game for 2.5 weeks. It got them 181 new local community members. Real people, in their neighborhood.
• Then there was a Tampa bookstore. Awesome little shop, but their Facebook page was a ghost town. We ran the "Burger Stacker" game-which is as silly and fun as it sounds-and got them 724 new Facebook page likes in two and a half weeks.
• My favorite one recently... a bakery in Minneapolis. They wanted to get some buzz on TikTok but had no idea where to start. We used the "Whac-A-Mole" game, and here's the crazy part, it generated 1,998 new user-generated posts on TikTok in 10 days!! People were literally posting videos of themselves playing this simple little game for a chance to win a box of cookies.

It works because it's not asking for much. It's giving people a moment of fun in exchange for their attention.

The Specific Games That Actually Get Results

Over the years, I've found that certain types of prize gaming work better for specific goals. It's not one-size-fits-all. Here’s what I typically recommend to my clients...

• For pure lead capture: You can't beat the Instant Draw games. Things like a "Lucky Spin" wheel, a "Scratch Ticket," or a simple "Lucky Draw." The conversion rates are insane. I have seen landing pages with these hit 40%+ conversion rates because people need to see if they won instantly. Dopamine on demand.
• For engagement and shares: The Reactive Games are king. "Whac-A-Mole," "Burger Stacker," or "Find Differences." These require a little bit of skill, so people share their scores and challenge their friends. That's your organic reach right there-you're not even paying for it.
• For holidays (this is a goldmine): Faisco has these pre-built templates for Christmas, Halloween, Black Friday... you name it. I used their "Fill My Christmas Stocking" catching game for three different retail clients last December. Each one saw over a 300% jump in engagement compared to their usual boring holiday sale posts. It cuts through the noise.
• For qualifying leads: Quiz games. "Unlock Lucky Words" or a "Treasure Hunt Challenge" are brilliant for this. You can subtly ask questions that tell you what kind of customer someone is. A travel agency, for example, could do a quiz like "What's Your Dream Vacation?" and segment their email list based on the answers. Simple. Effective.

A Quick Word on Tools: Faisco vs. Gleam. io

Everyone asks me this. "Byron, should I just use Gleam?"

Look, Gleam is a solid platform. It is. But frankly, it's a bazooka when all you need is a rifle. It's powerful, but it's also a bit complicated to set up, and the price ($39/month for their most basic plan) is a non-starter for a lot of small shops.

With Faisco, I can literally have a client's campaign live and running in under 10 minutes. No joke. The templates are there, the setup is intuitive, and it gives you 90% of the functionality at a fraction of the cost. For most of the businesses I work with, it's just a smarter choice. It's more practical. And after doing this since 2010, "practical" is the only thing I care about anymore.

So, here's my advice. Stop thinking you need to "go viral"-I hate that phrase. It's useless advice. Instead, think about how you can give your audience a two-minute break in their day. A little bit of fun. A prize gaming campaign is the easiest way I know to do that. Give it a shot. You'll probably be surprised by the results.

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